Curl back with Web 2.0 punch

Style and substance

Web 2.0 Expo Curl, the Rich internet programming language specialist, is re-launching into the North American market having succumbed to the post dotcom crash.

Curl is recruiting developers, sales and marketing staff, and expanding its marketing budget after the last North American push dried up with its VC funding.

Additionally, Curl has updated its Rich Internet Application Platform. Version 5.0 features drag-and-drop editing for menus, changes and diagrams, a profiler tool for analyzing application performance, and tooling to monitor http traffic.

Founded in 1998 and based on MIT research, Curl was purchased by Japan-based SCS Group for $1.5m and added to a roster of subsidiary properties that include VA Linux - also a high flyer during the dotcom boom.

Curl believes it can succeed this time around by targeting an AJAX and Adobe Flex crowd with a programming language that couples rich interactivity with simplified programming and enterprise-class scale. Curl uses object orientation, supports data sets larger than those provide by AJAX and Flex, and provides fast data access. Also featured are cross-browser compatibility and encryption.

A Curl spokesman told The Register that the company hopes to "get itself inserted into the conversation" when developers are considering AJAX or Flex.

That's important for Curl, as it serves customers in large manufacturing and finance running on large, distributed systems and sucking data from legacy sources. Since becoming a SCS subsiduary, Curl has ramped up 300 plus customers in Asia Pacific and Japan including giants Hitachi Displays, Nissan Diesel Motor Co and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

Curl hopes to make money with a licensing model charging per server and batches of user. Curl's integrated development environment and developer server are available for free to seed uptake, but the runtime server is $12,000 per server and first 20 users. Curl said its price is comparable to Adobe. ®